Years ago, during his Hall of Fame induction speech, Ryne Sandberg trumpeted the case for former teammate Andre Dawson saying the slugger "did it the right way, the natural way".
Whether or not he was making a veiled statement against those suspected of using PEDs (Sandberg says he wasn't), doesn't matter much now…the Philadelphia Phillies third base coach has pretty much made it known where he stands.
Does he believe those players who have used or have been suspected of using PEDs be allowed in the Hall of Fame?
"That's out of my hands. I do not vote. That's up to the sportswriters," the Chicago Cubs legend told MLB.com. "That was a tough era for baseball. So to deal with that, baseball is based on numbers, and I believe that any tainted numbers do not belong in the Hall of Fame."
Which brings me to, you got it…Jose Canseco.
During his podcast "Canseco Knows Best", Canseco claims there are "some players" in the Hall of Fame who have used steroids. He doesn't name names, obviously, but if you press Sandberg about it…he doesn't agree.
"I can say that in the history of the Hall of Fame, there are no suspicions about guys who are in the Hall of Fame. It's an elite group. And once you're in the Hall, you're in the Hall," the 2005 inductee said. "Up until now, I think the voting system has handled things very well. And like I said before, there are no suspicions in the Hall of Fame."
Now, I have no clue whether there is or isn't, but I will say this…there are guys in the Hall of Fame who have less than clean records. For guys like Sandberg, Goose Gossage and the like to sit there and pretend like everyone is clean is silly.
These guys need to stop acting as if baseball was pristine up until Mark McGwire first his the Hall of Fame ballot.
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